I recently played a gig in the most “live” room I’ve ever played in. When I say live, I mean that the room is very loud, reverberant, and there’s nothing in it to absorb sound. The opposite of this would be playing in a closet where all the clothes make the room extremely dead. You get the picture.

The problem, though, wasn’t just that this room was very live. It was also very small. While I was setting up I placed my foot on my hihat stand to close the hats, and the hihat chick echoed right back to me off the back wall. I was also set up in a cube-shaped nook in the corner of this venue, so the drums sounded a little like they were in a bathroom. If you know anything about room acoustics, you know that a cube-shaped room is the absolute worst shape a room could be. Weird things happen to the low end, and the high end gets slapped around in annoying ways. Basically this setup was becoming the perfect storm of everything you...

I played a gig a few weeks ago that tested my patience and ability to adapt as a drummer. This was pretty much a logistical nightmare for several reasons. It all started when I rolled into town…

The venue was at a downtown area where there’s a historic city-center square, surrounded by all sorts of hip restaurants, bars, and theaters. As I arrived on the square this Friday night, I was shocked to see a sea of at least 2,000 people on the lawn and flooding the streets. Crosswalks were crawling with folks. Sidewalks were crowded. Parking spaces were filled. Good thing I got here early.

Evidently a big family event was going on downtown, and EVERYONE was there. But the *fun* part was that the venue I was playing at didn’t have any parking (of course). And the valet lots were full. So myself and my bandmates had to take turns unloading each other’s vehicles on the curb in front of the gig location. Somebody would unload then go look for...